Frugal DIY: How to Make Homemade Laundry Detergent

Have you ever wondered how to make h0memade laundry detergent in your own home? If so, you are in luck! The initial investment is about $11 for the first 5 gallons, but after that, you will have Borax and Washing Soda left over and will only have to buy the bar of soap. To make it easier to stir, you may want to try a drill attachment for stirring paint.

We have found all these at Wal-mart. If they are out, Ace Hardware is the next best place to find look.

Here’s how you put it all together:

Shred bar of soap (we like to use a cheese grater) and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken. (It will gel.)

Stir once again and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser. Shake before each use.

I love making homemade laundry soap. I usually add a scoop of oxi-clean to each load to give it a little extra boost. I also use gallon milk jugs to store my laundry detergent in. I like to make a couple batches and have 8-10 gallons ready to go. I also use 1 bar of Ivory soap (slightly cheaper) and haven’t noticed any difference. Thanks for the great reminder of this money-saving tip!

YES!!! I’ve been making it for 2 1/2 yrs. Won’t go back to store bought. I have allergies and this hasn’t bothered me at all. I make the recipe that is 1/3 bar of Fels Naptha, 1/2 C each of borax, washing soda, and baking soda. Makes 2 gallons. I always make a double batch. It takes just as long.

I too have been making mine for a year or so and won’t go back.. my reicipe has the same ingredients but is a little different. I also used the sample of unstoppables in the recipe to use as fragrance and it worked great.

I’ve been making my own as well for several years now- works great! We add essential oil (tea tree or lavender). If your store doesn’t carry the super washing soda ask the manager to order it for you- most will.

Yes, if you search online you can find the amt to use in HE machines. My friend made some and loves it. I haven’t tried it yet but plan to when we’ve moved. I have HE machines. I just can’t remember exactly how much you use.

Am I mixed up and not readin this right? You say it makes 5 gallons but in the directions you say fill a 5 gallon bucket half full. Will you end up with 2 1/2 ? Are you suppose to add more water to make it to 5?

The key to HE soap is that it needs to produce a very very low amount of suds because it doesn’t use as much water. This homemade soap produces practically NO suds whatsoever. So, it is just fine to use. I’ve been using it for our HE washing machine for quite some time now … without problems!

You can use ZOTE (I’ve found at the 99 cent store) or ivory bars as well – you just want to make sure that you’re using real soap, not a “moisturizing bar” or something like that. I’ve used all three in my powdered detergent and like them all.

Tara ~ In my opinion, I don’t think it cleans as well as Tide. But, it’s good enough for me! I do pre-wash stain treatments as needed and sometimes use oxy-clean as well for a boost.

Also, there is no smell with the homemade soap. The clothes just come out smelling … clean. No perfume smell. I like having a good smell, so I often use a liquid fabric softener in our wash cycle to help with that. (not to mention we hang dry all of our clothes here in Hawaii, so I want them to be soft with having to use the dryer).

I still love Tide, but don’t use it anymore because of the cost. The amount of money we used to buy laundry soap is now saved since making your own soap is so inexpensive!

Go ahead and try it! If you don’t like it, you didn’t invest THAT much money into it! If you like it, you’ll save yourself A LOT of money down the road.

I have tried and tried to make dishwasher soap that works well. It is borax, washing soda and citric acid in most recipes but after a few washes (even with vinegar in the rinse compartment) the glasses become very cloudy. I decided that since I really only need about a Tablespoon of storebought powder, it is not such a terrible expense and worth it to have clear glasses…

When I made our own detergent last year for the first time, I was SHOCKED at how little time it took (and how EASY it was and how LONG the soap lasts and how CLEAN our clothes are!) No brainer! I’ll never buy Tide again!

I like to make the powdered version – it takes up way less space. I just pulse the soap bar in the blender (I have used Dr. Bronners, Burt’s Bees, Fels Naptha, Zote, Yardley’s – .69 at Walgreens today) to pulverize it and then add the borax and washing soda and blitz again. It becomes very powdery and dissolves easily. The clothes are clean with both liquid or solid. I use a scant Tablespoon in the wash compartment and a little less in the pre-wash compartment of my HE washer.

Yes, if you search online you can find the amt to use in HE machines. My friend made some and loves it. I haven’t tried it yet but plan to when we’ve moved. I have HE machines. I just can’t remember exactly how much you use.
BTW, these are great prices on the ingredients. I live in WA state and searched out the ingredients. The Fels Naptha was almost $3/bar!!

My recipe calls for 1-2 Tbs of Dawn dishwashing detergent…the blue stuff. Stir it in with all the other powdered stuff. It acts as a degreaser.
And while the homemade stuff does NOT (not matter what I pretreat with) get out that ground-in red-sliding-into-home-base baseball dirt (or the center-field-diving-for-catches grass stains, for that matter…lol) it still is WONDERFUL stuff for regular old laundry!

Ug. Guess I’m a lone wolf here but ummm… yeah no. Not happening. Grate a bar of soap with a cheese grater?! I don’t even like grating CHEESE with a cheese grater. LOL. Plus I can get detergent pre-made for about the same cost so why bother? I’d need to see a real savings to make up for the time spent.

I used my Cuisinart and grated the bar in about 60 seconds (that even includes cutting it in thirds). Even the cheap detergent isn’t as cheap as this is….because it makes SO much!…I can’t wait to try it tomorrow after it gels

The only bad thing I’ve noticed about using homemade is that the clothes don’t get their shape back as well as they do with store bought laundry soap, pants stay baggy and shirts sometimes look stretched out. Used one batch, have enough for another…gonna use it up then go back to regular for a while and see if I notice a difference or if its just a figment of my imagination. Anyone else notice that?

My husband and I really love the powder version and the scent of Fels- Naptha. Had no isses with our HE washer. BUT (1) after washing a load of red clothes, they seemed faded and (2) I’ve been wondering why my “girl part” has been irritated the past two days…it’s the homemade detergent! Oh well, I tried!

I began making my own detergent when my youngest was an infant. He was allergic to many commercial detergents and didn’t have a reaction to this mixture and we had clean clothes. He is no longer allergic but I can’t justify spending $20.00 on detergent while this works and is so inexpensive. I spend about $20.00 a year to make my detergent. I make it in a powder form and it only take 1 Tbsp per load of laundry. I used to use the liquid but took too much space to store it. I will never buy detergent again.

is this a good thing for children that have sensitive skin and eczema? I was thinking about making my own, with 4 kids, laundry adds up but im unsure if its safe for my kids. They break out with everything, i have to do everything unsented and no dye. What do you think?

I made this detergent a while back and have had no problems out of it. My husband roofs houses so his clothes are covered in sweat, chalk dust, shingle grit, and lords knows what else. So I add some oxi-clean to mine. Now he tells me that his clothes are making him itch. Anyone have an idea of what I can change or add/remove that may help?

For the powder recipe I use the following-
1 75 oz 20 mule team borax
1 55 oz arm & hammer washing soda
2 bars fels-naptha (can use ivory soap)
1 64 oz baking soda
1 28 oz crystals fabric softener
1 48 oz oxyclean
grate the soap and mix all ingredients in a large container. Use 2TBSP per load. I use a 20 quart tub with lid to mix and store mine in. This lasts almost 4 months for my family but we also do a lot of laundry each week (20+ loads).
I have also read on some sites where women have said if clothes are oily or greasy to add a 12 oz can of Coca-Cola to the wash. I have not tried this so don’t know how well it works.

My husband is a crane mechanic so you can imagine how dirty and smelly he gets. I haven’t tried the homemade detergent yet but I do add 2-12oz cans of original coke to his laundry and believe me it works. Sometimes it did not get rid of all of the diesel smell so I started adding 1 cup of vinegar to the wash. End result is clean,fresh clothes for my hard working man.

I am new to the site and am enjoying it the ideas. Regarding detergents, I’d like to share my success. I have had great results with Shaklee’s laundry detergent which I have been using for just about 34 years. I never had any allergic problems or skin irritations and I recommend it constantly. As a Certified Nutrition Counselor, I run into the problem of toxic chemicals in people’s homes all the time and every cleaner that comes from this company is easy, clean and well, cheap.

One thing that I suggest to consumers is to try to stop buying from publically traded companies – they don’t always have the consumer’s best interests as their intent for selling products. I love to support small business. Blessings to everyone. Georgia

This is not deterget..it’s soap. Fels Naptha is a very soap that is a skin irritant. No wonder the woman’s ”girl part” was irritated after wearing clothes washed in this stuff. Your recipe will fade the hell out of clothes. Maybe ok for washing shop rags and overalls but for street clothes, forget it. I also bet this stuff needs hot water to do a decent job. Modern laundry detergents, as opposed to soaps, do much of their work by enzyme action, not harsh surfractants. You may save a few pennies on your soap/detergent but you will pay big money in clothes you have to replace because they are faded and the surface texture damaged.

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